In which we revolt!

 May entry into the 11/24 Blog Carnival: Haves and Have Nots.

Revolution as a Game of Power: Running Revolts Through Faction Intrigue

In TTRPGs, revolution often means upheaval, chaos, and the rearrangement of power structures. Yet, there's no need to think of revolutions as purely mass-based uprisings. Drawing inspiration from settings like 700 Lordly Houses, I take a different approach: presenting revolution as a complex dance of factional influences, rivalries, and the tactical moves of a few skilled operators—namely, the players.

Revolution as a Network of Influences

Revolution can be seen as a struggle not only of the “Have Nots” rising against the “Haves” but also of competing factions jockeying for control, influence, and survival. This is a more localized, faction-oriented perspective, where individual agents—be they nobles, spies, or mercenaries—can have a significant impact. By focusing on factions rather than masses, players can engage with revolution on a scale that can be both digestible and intensely personal.

Why Small Groups Matter

In a faction-driven game, the actions of small groups are the levers that push change. This doesn’t mean the players alone can start or end a revolution; rather, they influence pivotal figures and factions whose decisions ripple through the fabric of society. For example, one lord’s choice to back a rebellion might turn the tide or fracture alliances. A revolutionary movement may rely on noble houses, secret guilds, or even criminal syndicates, each with their own interests and methods. As the players work with (or against) these factions, they impact the revolution in a way that feels organic and impactful.

Running a Revolution in Faction Turns

Using faction turns, as outlined by Of Cats and Books, is an ideal way to track the progress and status of various revolutionary factions. In these turns, factions make their moves: recruiting allies, making power plays, spreading influence, or crushing dissent. When players act, they influence a faction's standing or affect another faction’s plans directly, giving them real agency in the revolution.

Faction turns can unfold on a time scale that best fits your table, creating a timeline that charts the revolution’s growth or collapse. The players’ actions determine how their allies fare, who gains or loses influence or resources, and where the tipping points might occur.

Influence over Mass Action: The Key to Revolutions

When thinking of a revolution as a series of factional maneuvers, a single band of heroes isn’t responsible for winning or losing. Instead, they are agents of influence. Consider a few ways players can affect a revolution without leading a mass uprising:

• Targeted Sway: Players can sway key NPCs within factions, negotiating or persuading them to join, remain neutral, or withdraw from the revolutionary movement. Instead of fighting in the trenches, players maneuver behind the scenes, manipulating those with direct control over the masses or at least small clusters of them.

• Strategic Strikes: Just as in Blades in the Dark, where individual actions impact larger factional standings, players can conduct missions against specific targets. This could mean sabotaging supply lines, assassinating a tyrant’s right-hand agent, or liberating a charismatic revolutionary imprisoned by the ruling class.

• Moral Manipulation: Revolutions often pivot on ideology. Players could spread misinformation, inspire loyalty, or discredit rivals to shift public perception and morale. This is where Night’s Black Agents-style investigative and manipulative gameplay shines, as players engage in the war for hearts and minds rather than swords and shields. The Vampyramid is your friend!

• Personal Alliances and Betrayals: In a world like 700 Lordly Houses, allegiances are delicate. If players help a faction rise in the revolution, they’re setting the stage for power grabs and betrayals down the line. The revolution becomes less about one side winning or losing and more about who gains what in the aftermath.

Examples of Faction-Driven Scenarios

1. Betrayal at the Banquet: The players receive intelligence that a noble who sits on the fence between the ruling power and the revolutionaries is attending a private banquet. If they can sway or sabotage this noble’s allegiances, they could pull an entire family or network into the revolutionary cause or away from it. Success or failure here shifts the balance of power within the revolution. I might suggest Festivities if you need ideas.

2. The Assassination of a War Architect: A brutal general is leading oppressive measures that have kept the revolution contained. Removing this figure could change the tide. The players are tasked with planning and executing a subtle assassination, knowing that every faction involved will have its own reaction.

3. The Smuggling Chain: Factions often rely on supply lines and resources to operate. The players are hired by a faction to secure a route for smuggling arms or block a rival’s trade routes. In this scenario, players become the nerve center of factional warfare, making tactical decisions that impact the success of larger movements.

Conclusion: Agency and Balance

By presenting revolution as a series of factional skirmishes, rivalries, and negotiations, the process becomes something dynamic and immersive rather than a grandiose mass movement. This also preserves the tension and challenge for the players, as they never have total control but remain essential to shaping key events. In this approach, players are neither the entire revolution nor just passive witnesses—they are influencers, tacticians, and decision-makers. This style keeps revolutions interactive and allows for a balance of political intrigue, tactical moves, and high-stakes choices, providing a unique and layered game experience.

 EDit 11/20 to add:  Let's Talk Clocks is another helpful tip ... and Red Hand of Doom provides good insight on how to run those massive war campaigns by playing the party.

Note:  Chat-GPT assisted with the compilation of this post.

In which we go Greek

 The actor in our group got cast in an October show so we've lost 1/3 of our party.  By agreement we put

Heracles and the Nemea Lion Pieter Paul Rubens

the campaign on hold and I offered the party something ... different.  Instead of waking up in the deep forest, where they WERE, they find themselves on a beautiful beach with Cyprus and Olive trees in the distance.

They're visiting the island of Kalogeros, home to both Mount Olympus and the Gates of Hades.  Cerberus has become problematic and the gods have sent the party to the stewards of the island to assist with the mayhem.  You can find the whole thing here, including maps, music and VTT tokens.  It's a railroad but for a short term somebody-couldn't-make-it drip in it fills the bill.  And can be revisited whenever necessary.  Note: not thrilled with the music but I found some good usable stuff here and even here.  Lot's of folks don't like THIS source but I got a sweet 1-year deal so I'm using it while I can.  Some good music here but might be too much waste for too much money.  Film at 11.

Anyway.  We got in a good three hour session.  LOTS of role-playing.  My party spent a LOT of time talking to Chyron.  A LOT.  About stuff that had next to nothing to do with the game.  One hour gone.  Second hour was spent tracking down the BBG along with all of the encounters therein.  Third hour was a reasonably interesting combat.  Number of opponents increased nearly every round which was interesting.  Party used their AOE spells to good effect when the numbers got big.  And the BBG failed an important ST which made it a little easier.

Nothing new from most characters, the exception being our Scribe Wizard who finally uncorked her Manifest Mind feature to good effect.  An interesting magic item was the reward.  Don't think they've caught on to the whole Hercules thing.  Yet.  One player has a decent knowledge of the mythology but she still hasn't made the connections.  She will.  Eventually.  

Figured the first session would be intro and one task.  Nailed it.  So I'm thinking two tasks for the next level.  And the hydra is a water/underwater fight which this party has never done.  But they DO use a lot of fire-based spells so it might be easier than expected.  Hopefully the giant mud crab will grapple the flame throwers.

In which we mess around with time.

 I've occasionally lamented that most campaigns are not sweeping enough or long enough or enough enough for the "aging" rules to come in to play.  I've considered throwing a Pendragon homebrew into my mix but am kinda afraid of player revolt so it always get put on my back burner.

And then my weekend reading flipped a switch.  I found this!  I read the whole thing.  I read it AGAIN.  I read the links.  I took notes.  And I pulled up my trusty Chatgpt.  And my next campaign began to take shape.

Here's the pitch.  First 5 levels are sandbox.  Following plot hooks.  Killing things.  Helping people.  Finding stuff.  Then in tier two the flow changes.  Characters follow a hook  to another plane.  Fey?  Shadow?  Who knows.  And when they come back they've all moved into the next age category.  From young adult to mature.  STR and WIS improve.  20-25 years have passed.  I can use ChatGPT to figure out some of the big picture changes.  That village they were from?  Grown to a town.  The local noble house they were serving.  Maybe now they're the ruling family in the realm.  Or vanished.  We play a level or so and then they're summoned by a higher power to another planer adventure.  Perhaps the four elemental planes?  Gets us to tier III.  And when they come back they're middle aged.  Maybe 50 years have passed this time.  The world is different.  They spend a level figuring things out.  And then called away again.  To another plane or three.  

Upon return the players are now old.  Death lurks around corners.  Maybe one or two have died.  Another level on the material plane and then the final summoning.  Upon this return they are venerable (if they survive the travel.)  And they play out their old age on the material plane.  

If a player dies they are replaced by descendant, a fan, a family member. To hold the thread.  

Think it'll work?  

In which we earn XP

 

Haven't rambled about this in a LONG while (if ever) and I feel bad there's been nothing here for a while AND I've seen a few discussions on the topic on the webs so I thought I'd ramble.  CavegirlPoems started me thinking over on Tumblr.  They do a nice job breaking down how a handful of games award XP and what that means for the game.  Early D&D was simple.  1 GP of treasure = 1 XP.  Delve.  Carry it out.  Improve.  Repeat.  Simple, but nailed it.  Encumbrance mattered, as did depth of penetration.  YOU THERE IN THE BACK!  STOP GIGGLING!  Vampire The Masquerade rewards you for being the kind of player the game wanted. AS CgP observes "It was the 90s, they were still working out how to be a narrative-driven game, but you can see where they were going with it."  Monsterhearts.  XP for engaging with a mechanic.  I need more study.  And finally they look at 5e.  There are two systems at play here.  First is combat.  Violence gets you XP.  Hence: Murder hobos.  Second is milestone.  You level up when the GM feels like it.  And the game becomes James Wood finding Peter's candy.  You're "rewarded for following the railroad and reaching pre-planned plot moments in a pre-scripted story. You either have no agency in the matter, or are rewarded for subsuming your agency to the will of the GM. (This pattern continues with inspiration rewards, which are given 'when the GM is entertained by you'.)"

Neither of those is satisfactory which is why we don't use them.  We use the now seven year old Unearthed Arcana Three Pillar Rule.  Pillar I:  Exploration.  1 XP for every new 20 mile hex you travel through on a road or trail.  5 XP through the wilderness.  And additional XP (10 - 40) for exploring important locations, whether tied to the "storyline" or not and for finding "big ticket" magic items.  Pillar II: Combat.  Based on CR of the opponent and level of the character.  Awarded for killing, defeating and occasionally bypassing a creature or group of creatures, or a trap or problematic encounter.  Pillar III: Social interactions.  Awarded for positive interaction with influential NPCs.  The Mayor of that small village that you schmoozed when you were 9th level?  5 XP.  Positively influencing an NPC with cosmic reach?  20 XP or more.  

So does this produce the game I want?  After every session I send an email detailing the XP's earned.  The party KNOWS that traveling from A to B along a trade rout for the first time will be worth 6 XP but nothing after that as they run back and forth.  Cut a new 4-hex path through the wilderness?  20 XP.  Decide to check out that haunted cemetery on the way to the Wizards Tower?  Maybe 10 XP.  Maybe nothing.  Maybe it's a training ground for the BBG Evil Necromancer's mooks which might have a major impact on the storyline in coming months and worth 20 XP or more.  And they've learned to talk to people.  Find out who's in charge (or at least authoritative) and chat them up.  

And that's kinda the game I want.  Look under the rocks.  Smell the flowers.  Slay the evil beasties.  Thoughts?

In which we un-randomize random encounters

 at least during "travel."

Here's how we've BEEN playing it:  drawing from Uncharted Journeys and a few other sources all cobbled together I have the players roll a d20 and a d6.  The d20 determines the encounter and the d6 determines when it happens.  

There are roughly a dozen TYPES of RE during travel.  Rest related.  Food related.  Bumps in the road.  Caravans.  Travelers in trouble.  Bandits.  Monsters.  A few others.  And what I've BEEN doing is ...winging it.  But you can only have so many muddy sink holes, last adventurers and greedy bandits.  

UJ uses a very mechanic heavy approach.  Party members assume "rolls" on the trip.  Depending on the type of encounter a given roll makes a skill check that then determines how the party rolls to respond to the encounter.  Party rolls.  Results applied.  Move on down the road.  Game-able n stuff but not terribly "satisfying" during the session.   I've tried prepping a 4e style skill challenge but those are difficult to spin out spur of the moment.  So I need to come up with something "different."  After 50 years of a game there just ISN'T much different.

One of my players suggested "give us two minutes to come up with a solution and THEN adjudicate it."  Which is nice for player buy-in and participation.  So here's what I'm going to do this week.  As part of my prep I'm going to design THREE RE's for each general type (thus putting a dagger in the heart of the "random" part.)  I'll incorporate the UJ method and layer in some 4e skill challenge stuff.  It'll be more detailed and granular than it needs to be BUT - it's what my table has asked for and once the initial chart is designed I'll only need to replace those that are used.  Some weeks there will be NONE!  

More lonely fun.

In which we get swarmed by bees

 Yup.  Bees.  Party of 6.  Average of 5th level.  And a dozen swarms of bees.  Two each in fact.  Theater of

the mind.  Lot's of dropping below 0 and MED checks and heal spells and bad rulings and stuff.  But as is the case with many sessions we did a lot that we'd never done before so the virgin territory provided most of the problems.

First the new "hits not HP" system.  Most users recommend rounding down.  But nooooo.  I couldn't do THAT.  I rounded up.  "It's only 1 more hit" I thought.  Yes.  But one extra hit over a dozen beasties with an AC of 14 has quite an impact.  So rounding DOWN from now on.  Otherwise the system worked quite well.  Next - the tactical adjustments.  Party had been complaining that since everything was attacking from a distance they could usually pick it apart with the expert marksman ranger and a smattering of spells.  So this time they stumbled on a honey thief being absolutely DESTROYED by angry bees.  And the clouds of apian hell descended upon them with great fury.  Those little buggers went earlier in the initiative order than the plodding ogre's and giant spiders had been.  Throw in the fact that they have damage resistance to most weapons and this thing became a SLOG.  Glass cannon forgot he had a magic wand.  That didn't help.  When he DID go down (quite early) I noted that the bees were no longer attacking him.  But nobody in the party acknowledge this.  And nobody tried to run!  'Cause they're heroes, dontcha know.  This was attributed to the fact that they couldn't really SEE what was going on.  So retreating wasn't an option?  Well, OK.  No more TotM.  Haven't run one of those in months anyway.  

A few other mistakes. Too many swarms.  Nine or ten woulda been better than 12.  One to the "low" characters, two to the high ones.  Mike Mearls recently recommended managing the action economy by avoiding using monsters that have move total actions per round greater than three times the number of players.  That number would by 18 for this encounter.  The bees can move and attack.  So nine swarms woulda worked better.  Lesson learned.

The LAST mistake (?) I made was in my treatment of Temporary HP.  I was treating it as healing.  It isn't.  So we'll avoid the yo-yo effect that we saw last night.  

So I gave the party what they wanted.  And then they didn't want it any more.  The fighter was barely touched but had trouble dealing damage.  The cleric did some healing and utility work and had a BALL trying to figure out what the optimum action was every round.  Druid took a beating and did OK but her spores were less than effective.  Two wizards took too much damage early to be as effective as they'd like.  And the ranger?  Without his +11 archery ability he was more or less worthless and NOT happy about it.  Party worked well as a unit, found a few holes in their procedures, and now know what they need to add/improve.  Which will lead to meaningful decisions.  

Not bad for a two-hour slugfest that didn't HAVE to happen.

In which they get what they asked for

 Table's been going for over three years now.  Third campaign.  First two ended in TPKs.  After each did

an exit interview and tried to incorporate the responses into the next one.  They were pretty good with everything except the over-arching plots.  They didn't want one.  "We wanna be itinerant monster and treasure hunters."  And they wanted a little more political intrigue.  And one wanted some big military stuff.  Maybe.

So I plopped them onto a corner of the planet ruled by noble houses with a complex web of interrelationships and intrigue.  Lot's of one shots and exploring.  And it seemed well received.  Until last session.  We ALWAYS spend a bit of time discussing the meta-game but after our last session they lamented the lack of a BBG and big plot line!  I was throwing two or three plot hooks at them every session, tailored for their class and backstory.  They knew they could pass on any and do whatever they wanted.  I was usually able to riff off their decisions.  But now five levels in they've decided they want the thing they didn't want!

And.

In each of the prior two campaigns I had an "out" adventure.  Something to run if someone couldn't make it or if things went south early.  First one was a book of fairy tales that pulled PC's in.  They fought the big bad wolf and Rumpelstiltskin and encountered the Bremen town musicians.  They liked it.  Second one was a demi-plane in a tapestry (lifted from Pathfinder.)  They liked it too.  And they wanted another one.  So it's tough when good ideas fall in your lap and then you're called upon to duplicate the result.

Anyway.

Spending this weekend spinning up a BBEG, an overarching storyline and a recurring diversion.  And I have one.  IF YOU'RE AT MY TABLE STOP READING THIS NOW.  Recurring diversion is a compass that opens gates to small demi-planes where I'll drop small strange worlds or 5-room dungeons with ever increasing CR monsters.  AND there's an AI nested inside of it, which siphons off magic and event energy and decides to evolve.  Hence the BBEG.  And lots of factions want control of it.  Which is the adventure arc.  So I'm done.  After reviewing every Pathfinder Adventure Path, D&D published campaign, the twenty steppers designed by Sly Flourish, and a raft of tired ideas on Reddit and other sites.  

But.

The party will be happy (I hope.)  I've advised there will be a raft of plot hooks next week and one of them MIGHT be the Big Arc and one of them MIGHT be the Recurring Diversion.  So we'll see how it goes.

In Which We Cobble Together a Frankenventure

 Here then, with links to almost all the tools used, I how I assembled the parties current little decampment.  A few months back they observed that there wasn't enough going on during overland travel.  "Aside from the two caravans a day you met and allowed to roll placidly on by?  How many plot hooks you think each of 'em was carryin'?"

But they did have a bit of a point.  My random encounter tables weren't enough to support the massive undertaking.  So let's go the hexcrawl route.  Fill those random hexes with temples and caves and mysteries.  So I turned to the good folks at Infinium Game Studio and their Hexcrawl Toolkit.  Allowed me to quickly populate the area surrounding the journey.  Done with step 1.

So I ended up with, among other things, a small settlement thorp north of the next settlement.  The BASE of the current campaign is 700 Lordly Houses from Worldspinner.   Every populated area is under the control of SOME lordly house and I'd already plopped House Willow into the thorp.  It has a couple built in story lines but nothing I wanted to activate just yet. The larger area is run by House Ferrante who control most of the iron production in the region.  Seems like they'd be in conflict.  So much for Step 2.

Next we dial up ChatGPT. A handful of prompts later and we had a mystical hill topped by a temple over which the two families fight.  These then are the ChatGPT results I capitalized on:  "Atop the hill, a shrine dedicated to a deity associated with craftsmanship and cosmic balance stands as a testament to the hill's significance. Both families lay claim to the shrine, each interpreting its significance differently. The Ironhearts see the deity as a protector of their craft, while the Stellarglades believe the deity's presence embodies the cosmic harmony they venerate.  Artifacts of Unity: The shrine holds a set of artifacts that, when reunited, have the power to mend the rift between the families and restore the hill's harmony.  My imagination then created the Anvil of Unity, the Heart of Iron (exactly what it sounds like) and the Willow Nexus (a marble representation of a willow tree.)  Step 3 completed.

Didn't wanna make this TOO hard.  The Lady of House Willow entreated the party to locate and return the two missing artifacts.  A visit to the temple revealed clues.  The phrase "as below, so above" was linked to the Heart of Iron, and the willow was linked to The Eternal Garden", about whom the party had heard rumors (quite simply as filler conversation at a tavern.)  Elven Tower had recently released Corvinus Family Crypt.  Change the name, shove that puppy under the temple, give the Heart of Iron to the BBG.  Voila.  Half done!  And this is as far as has been played.  I DID use the Underclock to decent effect.  The Shadowing Event hit a VERY good time for the narrative but the actual encounter turned out to be a tad ... anticlimactic.  Not every one can be a home run.

The party spent the rest of the day at the temple in a driving rain.  A short rest for a reasonable recovery.  The PLAN is to go back to Weshesony, do a little research (which will likely consist of asking some randome passer-by what the know about the Eternal Garden) followed by the trip TO the EG.  

The aforementioned Hexcrawl Toolkit suggests using their random dungeon generator to assemble the garden pathways.  Didn't appeal to me.  So I thought I'd turn to a tool that has stood me in good stead on several occasions and lends itself to the concept of this shifting malevolent garden:  Carapace from The Goblin's Henchman.

So I'll put together a RE table, escalating as the party gets closer to the goal.  Modify the rules just a tad, use the Underclock, rolling at each hex ... incorporating ALL of the stuff.  The Willow is at the "center" of the complex, so it's a "get in and get out" as quickly as possible.  The party can find clues to ease their task either in town or within the Garden.  

Once BOTH items are returned to their rightful place in the temple the families negotiate an accord which improves both.  The party is rewarded  with some interesting stuff via The DM Lair which presents a slew of interesting alternatives to the old "gold and magic items" tropes. In this case they've been wanting a way to ease/speed travel.  A pony, 2-wheeled cart and harness are bestowed.  This stuff is worth about 3-400 gp here.  The Ranger can handle the cart and pony.   Six resources?  Seven?  All knit together to make a VERY nice three session adventure.